The sport of rowing has long been recognized as providing an excellent form of exercise. A rower can thoroughly exercise and develop his or her legs, back, shoulders, arms and other areas of the body. However no jarring or pounding effect is imparted to the rower's knees or other body parts, as may occur in other sports such as running.
An exemplary rowing exercise machine, providing the benefits of the sport of rowing, is disclosed in U.S patent application Ser. No. 762,709 filed Aug. 5, 1985. In this rowing exercise machine, a user interface, including a cable having a handle attached thereto for engagement by the user is unwound and rewound about a cable drum to impart rotation to a shaft on which the drum is mounted. Connected to the shaft is a flywheel for receiving and conserving angular momentum imparted to the shaft. A brake unit is coupled to the shaft to resist rotation of the shaft during the power portion of a stroke to thereby provide a force opposing the user. One problem encountered with this type of rowing machine is the wear on the user interface cable fittings caused by concentrated forces produced by the user and the mechanism opposing the user. The cable port through which the cable exits the cabinet housing the cable drum, flywheel, etc., is also subject to considerable wear. Further problems have arisen when the cable is rewound wherein the cable falls off the drum or loops and gets tangled if the rewinding is not fast enough.